Thursday, July 5, 2007

Why celebrate a life that we hate?

Our lives encounter minimal moments of comfort and pleasure. Most of our time is spent working for a boss that couldn't care less about our dreams, wants, or happiness. We exist to make someone else a buck, while generally being able to barely afford to keep ourselves and our families fed, clothed, and sheltered. Our minimal needs are barely met week after week, while the business owners and bosses enjoy more commodities than any of us will ever see in our entire lives.

When the drudgery and stress of work is over, we come home with barely enough time to watch television, get drunk, and try our hardest to forget what we had to endure while working. And this is if we even are able to hold down a job. Layoffs, business closings, and mass terminations have made it hard to even keep a secure job.

Those of us that work in this society celebrate any holiday we have off. We try our best to reconnect with our friends and families during these times. The Fourth of July is no exception, and we are quick to light up our grills and crack open a cold beer, while watching fireworks and having passing conversations with loved ones we barely know because we spend most of our time at our workplace.

This is the reality that the majority of us face. This is our life. A life of stress, pain, boredom, and physical, mental, and emotional suffering. And this is the country where we have it good! Imagine what it must be like in South America, Africa, or Asia!

Why do we tend to celebrate an existence that most of the time we curse? Maybe it's because we are afforded so few chances to actually enjoy life that we have to force ourselves to celebrate even when there is nothing to really be happy about.

So why is it that the vast majority of us will never really be able to enjoy life, while a small minority will continue to get richer at our expense? Do our lives really have to be like this? Is this all we have to look forward to, the same “clocked in” existence with a boss breathing down our neck most of the hours of our life? Can we see better days? Or will we continue to drudge away until our retirement days? Can anyone really afford to retire anymore anyway?

Our day to day existence is one that is controlled by others, true. However, we are the ones who ultimately have power over our lives. The trick is to get that power back. We have an undeniable right to life and happiness. It's time we fight for both. Starting tomorrow, after the holiday has ended, will we just go back to our normal lives? Or will we assert our rights, as humans? Will we work to ensure a say in our lives at work as well as back in our communities? The answer is democracy, surely. But democracy that is direct. Where everyone is on equal footing, and we all have the same power, where the lines between boss and worker, student and teacher, police officer and citizen no longer exist.

Tomorrow, when we go into work, let's all insist on being paid a living wage. Let's all ensure that our workplace is safe. Let's all tell our bosses what we really think of them. Let's keep what we produce, and give it directly to our community. If we act tomorrow, we will never have to relive yesterday.

Wednesday, July 4, 2007

From Lawrence to Iraq: American Freedom Marches On

On July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was signed. When the ink dried on this document, it sealed the collective fate of not only the people residing in North America, but of people all over the world. In the two hundred and twenty-nine years since dozens of men that owned other men signed that document, the world has come to know the true meaning of American-style Freedom.

From Native Americans to Black Slaves, from Chileans to Iraqis, from working class mothers to prison inmates, the ordinary people of this world have continually suffered while the rich back in the United States profit. Since this country's founding by slave owners and rich colonialists, nothing has changed. The relatively small percentage of people with real wealth in this country still control the rest of us.

Today, with the United States engaged in two ongoing deadly wars halfway across the globe, the people of Lawrence and the rest of this country feel the burden. While our social programs have their budgets slashed, the United States military continues to get the billions of dollars necessary to murder more and more Iraqis, while also getting more and more Americans killed in the process.

In Lawrence, hundreds go hungry every night. Thousands will never be able to attend college, or will receive a substandard education. Most families will struggle to ensure that their children have their basic needs met. Many more will never have health insurance. While it is we, the people of this city and of this country, that make the products, transport the goods, keep communication running, serve the food, and clean up the mess, the few of this country will reap all the benefits of our work. We will die, with barely pennies to show for our hard work, while others will have more products and commodities than they could use in hundreds of lifetimes.

What is it that we're celebrating today? With each firework that explodes in the sky, another life is lost in Iraq. With each burst of color, another child will go hungry here in this country. With each oooh and awww that we shout out during this spectacle of a pageant, our chances of ever seeing what freedom really looks like shrink ever smaller. The patriotism we show today will only be a reminder to those in charge of our fates, just how easily we can be used. How easily we can become their under-paid work force, or the cannon fodder needed for their next offensive.

Our blind allegiance makes this horror that fills our lives possible. Only our collective refusal will make that horror go away. In 1775, after the first draft in this country's history took place (one might wonder why people would have to be drafted to fight in a revolution...), a major riot of workers and the poor took place in Boston. Fighting against the draft, the workers yelled at the rich “patriots” gawking out their windows, “Tyranny is Tyranny! Let it come from whom it may!”

Whether tyranny is called Fascism or American Democracy, it still remains tyranny. What is it that we are celebrating? When we celebrate today, we celebrate our own betrayal and our own suffering. When we celebrate American Freedom, we ensure American Tyranny.